Knowledge base

Last month, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) issued a series of important judgments dealing with tax avoidance and beneficial ownership in the context of the EU Parent-Subsidiary Directive (PSD) and the Interest and Royalties Directive (IRD).

The Baltic States are always being mentioned in the tax news world for their latest involvement (some more directly than others). With Svenska Handelsbanken AB, Sweden’s biggest lender of assets being no exception; the bank recently had its business in Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania investigated.

The role of Corporate Secretary can be a position in a private sector company or within the public sector organisation. In large, publicly-listed corporations, a Company Secretary is typically named a Corporate Secretary or just a Secretary. The Company Secretary is responsible for the efficient administration of a company, particularly with regards to ensuring compliance with statutory and regulatory requirements and also for ensuring that decisions of the board of directors are implemented.

Business is an area that is continuously developing. An integral part of both business and economics are companies. It is possible to say that companies dictate the conditions of the market to a certain extent. Any public or private company has its own shares; a share is a security that provides a portion of ownership of the company and gives the holder the right to a part of the profits.

One of the main advantages of forming a legal entity is to limit the liability of the members of the company. However, in some circumstances, legal entities can be disregarded. This process is known as piercing the corporate veil and is the most common method for shareholders to take responsibility for the actions of the corporation.

Typical tax haven destinations such as BVI, Jersey and Switzerland have always been in the spotlight from profiting off of helping clients circumvent legislation in their jurisdiction of residence for decades.

One of many legal disputes resulting from the recent infamous Kazakhstan BTA bank fraud case has shed new light on a little-known immigration scheme colloquially known as the golden visa scheme and officially called a Tier 1 Investor visa in the UK; the scheme grants investors residency in exchange for spending £2m in UK bonds or shares through a bank, with applicants eligible for to remain indefinitely, with full citizenship after five years.

In an attempt to recover the approximate 600B euros lost within various EU countries to tax evasion schemes each year; the European Union has released its first official blacklist naming 17 jurisdictions that have failed to meet international standards of implementing sufficient regulations and transparency measures.

The requirement to maintain a register of people with significant influence or control, more commonly known as the PSC register was introduced to mandate all unlisted companies in the UK, including LLPs and dormant companies to maintain a register identifying those with significant control over a company.

The EC (European Commission) has published its draft legislation compelling financial service providers or intermediaries to disclose any international tax planning schemes they have encouraged, enabled or assisted in any way.